Related Media

Despite all of Lady Gaga’s outrageous antics — the meat dress, getting thrown up on during a performance and being escorted to the Grammys in a “Spinal Tap”-like capsule — putting out an album of jazz classics may be the most shocking move of her career.

Leave it to the pop icon to keep you guessing.

On Tuesday Lady Gaga (born Stefani Germanotta) and Tony Bennett announced the release date for their long-awaited duet album, “Cheek to Cheek,” on NBC’s the Today Show. The album will be released Sept. 23. Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” is the first single from the album and is already available online.

“Cheek To Cheek features classic jazz standards sung by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett in a combination of vocal duets and solo performances,” according to an announcement for the album’s release date. “Each song was handpicked by the artists, and the album features classic selections from the Great American Songbook including ‘Anything Goes,’ ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),’ ‘Sophisticated Lady,’ ‘Lush Life,’ and the record’s title track, ‘Cheek To Cheek.’”

Bennett and Lady Gaga have recorded together before, on Bennett’s “Duets II” in 2011, singing “The Lady is a Tramp.”

“‘Cheek To Cheek’ came out of a very organic friendship and relationship that Tony and I have built over the years and it truly was a collaborative effort,” Germanotta said in the announcement. “It was important to Tony that this was a jazz record. I’ve been singing jazz since I was a child and really wanted to show the authentic side of the genre. We made an album of jazz classics, but it has a modern twist.”

Bennett and Lady Gaga first met in 2011 at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City. Bennett asked her to sing a duet with him and their relationship has grown from there.

“I have been singing the Great American Songbook my entire career and all along forging a bridge between pop and jazz music,” Bennett said in the announcement. “Creating this album with Lady Gaga has been a beautiful experience as she is a fantastic singer and I am hoping that all her fans will embrace this music and swing along with it.”

Lady Gaga fans at Lake Tahoe will have plenty to swing to this weekend, when the singer brings her “ArtRave: The Artpop Ball” tour to South Shore. Fans shouldn’t, and likely aren’t, expecting many jazz classics.

The show features a half dozen costume changes, a host of back-up dancers and an other-worldly looking translucent stage that branches into the audience.

“The stage is lucite and you can just dance underneath the runways,” Lady Gaga tweeted in March.